Getting Ready for the First Day of School

This time tomorrow I will be on a plane heading to Europe. I have now found out that over the next three weeks what classes I will be taking. The first class that I will be taking is International Marketing. Even though I have taken Global Marketing at UNC I am excited to take it at ISM as well. As much as I learned from Professor McCorkle at UNC I feel like I can also learn a lot from a professor that offer a view other than the American prospective. The other class that I will be taking is International Project Management. I do not know much about this course yet but am glad that I am taking it because it is a course that is not one that I would be able to take at UNC. I have received and started to read the materials that they sent to me for the courses. There are a lot of materials to read but I also have a long plane ride that I will need to occupy.

Pre-Trip Jitters

I am in the single digits now. I only have nine days left before I get on a plane headed across the Atlantic Ocean. I am sure that underneath the nervous jitters I am extremely excited about this trip. I will let you know that I have never traveled by myself  and also have never traveled abroad. So this trip hold extreme significance to me. There are so many things that I don't really know what to expect such as what the University will be like, what the classes are going to be like and I think most of all what the people are going to be like. With all that said though I can't dwell on it too much because right now I have larger issues that need to be taken care of, like which suitcase I will be taking and how many pairs of shoes I need for three weeks.

You're going where this summer?

The reaction that I get when I tell people what my summer plans are is pretty much the same no matter who I am telling. Everyone seems to be taken aback, shocked and slightly confused when I tell them that I am going to be spending three weeks of my summer in Lithuania. There are three questions that I am asked once the initial shock has worn off:

1. Where is Lithuania?
2. What language to they speak there?
3. Why, of all the places in the world did you choose Lithuania?

For anyone who is still asking these questions, the point of this blog is for me to answer them for you.

Lithuania is in North Eastern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic former Soviet states. For all of you visual learners here is a map of the area.



In Lithuania they speak Lithuanian. I do not speak Lithuanian but I do know how to say hello (Labas), thank you (ačiū, pronounced achoo), and I love you (as tave myliu). I plan on trying to learn some more useful phrases before I go.

The last, and most important question is also the hardest to answer. The simple answer is just that this was the trip that I was offered. One minute I was talking to Dr. Reardon about some classes that I wanted to take in the fall and the next he is offering me a scholarship to go to Lithuania. I am still amazed that I am actually going but yet I still am trying to figure out why I am going. My mother tells me there are no coincidences in life, only God's plan and I know that it is true because there is no other way this trip could have come together as perfectly as it already has.